Mike Davis Featured in Oak Hill Gazette

For the last 30 years, Slack & Davis Partner and Co-Founder Mike Davis has made it his mission to ensure that children in the Oak Hill Youth Sports Association (OHYSA) in Austin were building confidence, learning something new, having fun and forging long lasting friendships.

For Davis, his involvement in OHYSA began as a volunteer when his son first started playing T-Ball. At the 50-year anniversary of the ballfields, Davis spoke with the Oak Hill Gazette and remarked that volunteering was a slippery slope – he first started out as a “helper dad,” then became an assistant coach, and the following year he was head coach. From there, his involvement with the league continued, landing him on the league board and subsequently in the position of President from 1998 – 1999.

During his tenure, he came up with the idea for tournament play with other youth sports associations to provide players greater exposure and help them better transition between league and high school ball. “It turned into a big deal that’s continued to this day,” said Davis.

Even when Davis was diagnosed with lymphoma, he told the Gazette, “About the only thing I looked forward to every day was when I was out there on the field coaching my team.” Years later, Davis noted that coaching still provided a release for him from the stresses of his work as an attorney. He was able to get as much back as he was giving, which extended beyond volunteer work. When floods hit South Austin a few years ago and completely devastated the sports complex, Davis and the firm contributed financially to all restoration efforts, even sponsoring brand-new scoreboards to celebrate the firm’s 20th anniversary and to honor the sports complex.

Through his later years at Oak Hill, Davis learned the true value of coaching when he no longer had a child on the team. He was a more laid-back coach, and even though the team did not win often, each kid signed back up for the next year. “If we do our jobs right as coaches, they’ll love it no matter if they win or lose.”